Oldest Americans Are the Most Confident in Their Looks

The oldest Americans feel the most comfortable with their physical appearance, according to a Gallup poll.

Some 66% of those aged at least 65 said they are satisfied with the way they looked, while only 61% of people aged between 18 and 34 said they feel good about their physical appearance. Middle aged people are the least confident age segment. Only 54% of those whose ages range between 34 and 64 answered favorably when asked whether they always feel good about their looks.

Mark Abramson for the Wall Street Journal

The lack of confidence among people between 35 and 65 years old may be partly attributed to the fact that it is during that stage of life that most people notice their first wrinkle and witness most of the first manifestations of aging.

Across all age segments, men ranked higher than women when asked about their confidence in their looks. While as many as 69% of men between the age of 18 and 24 answered favorably when inquired about the way they felt about their looks, only 57% of women from to the same age category felt the same. But the confidence gap between the two sexes shrinks as the age increases. That 12 percentage point gap for the age category between 18 and 24 falls to four percentage points by age 65. Women over the age of 85 were actually slightly more confident about their look than their male counterparts.

The research also suggested that whites are the least confident about their looks. Hispanics and blacks, across all ages were the most satisfied with their physical appearances. Asians’ confidence in their looks was also higher than whites across all age segments.

Overall the majority of Americans felt good about their looks with 58% answering favorably. Just 15% of those polled said they disagreed when asked whether they always felt good about their physical appearance and 27% neither agreed nor disagreed.

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